CHAPTER10

CHAPTER 10

“You like getting raped so much the first time that you had to come get seconds?”
The deep, rough voice had whispered the ugly question right behind her left ear. Zar’s heart almost ripped itself from her chest.
Riddick! He’d found her. Shit!
Turning slowly to face him and his wrath, she was stopped by his unmerciful grip on her arm.
“Answer me Zar! What the fuck are you doing here?”
She swallowed convulsively, trying to get some spit in her mouth.
If Riddick hadn’t been so angry he would’ve almost felt sorry for her. He had been following Brenner back to his place when he caught Zar’s scent. At first he thought it might be on his own clothes, but he soon realized it was fresh. That’s when he saw her. Doing a tolerable job of blending in with her dirty work jumper and hat pulled down low over her face. Her long hair hidden underneath the cap.
For all of two seconds he was at a total loss to explain her presence.
At first he thought she’d been following him. But then he realized she was ahead of him, not behind.
Then it hit him. She was tracking Brenner! The sneaky little bitch knew about his plans to ghost Brenner! Overtime his ass. Not only had she lied about her whereabouts, she also was trying to sabotage his plans. If she had been any other person she would’ve been dead, a shiv across the back.
He had to settle for putting the fear of Riddick in her instead.
So far he seemed to be doing a bang up job. He was halfway expecting her to make a run for it, she looked that terrified. Part of him was pissed that she thought he would hurt her, the other part didn’t blame her.
“Answer me! Why are you following Brenner?!”
He could see her mind working feverishly, trying to get past the fear of his reaction to see a way out.
Then he saw her wince as his grip became crueler.
He released her instantly. But she didn’t have a chance to escape. She found her the side of her face flush up against the wall of the alley she’d been spying on Brenner in, his forearm imprinting itself on the back of her neck. Riddick’s massive bulk pressing her whole body against the wall. She didn’t think she’d be able to breathe if he pressed one iota closer.
“Save the lying Zar. Let me give the answer for you. You found out about my little trip to Paradise a few weeks ago from Jack, hmmm? Remind to beat that girl when we get back, won’t you?”
“NO! YOU told me to have Jack confirm where you were that night of the fight! So don’t blame her!”
“Ahhh...and in doing so found out from her that I had had my undivided attention on a man who sounded exactly like Elson Brenner, huh? And from there figured out I had little surprise for him?”
She couldn’t nod with his imprisonment, all she could manage was a weak whisper of a “yes”.
“Trying to save me from myself Zar? What were you going to do? Kill him first?” He said with a laughing sneer in his voice. Then he saw her flinch.
“You’ve go to be kidding! YOU were going to try and ghost him before me?” He mind suddenly became aware of the gun in her jumper pocket grinding into his leg.
And the terror hit then. The sheer audacity of her trying to kill Brenner almost took his breath away. Visions of her lying dead, if she were lucky, flashed through his mind. Because he knew that when (not if) she failed, Brenner would make her previous rape and torture look like a simple tooth extraction in comparison to what he would do to her then. Instant death would’ve been a blessing.
He felt the cold sweat break out over his body. He imagined it’s what Johns felt whenever a fiending came over him for his morphine and he got the shakes. The fear that what you so needed might not be available to you ever again.
“Why Zar?! Why? I told you I would take care of you. Killing Brenner is the only way you’ll be safe!”
Tears were running down her face, but she didn’t feel them. All she could see was a future without Richard. Either because he was dead, a reborn psychokiller, or simply because she had pushed him away with her unforgivable ( in his mind) scheming.
“I don’t want to lose you! You’ve been so distant and cold. I knew something was going on. When Jack described the man you were watching in the Paradise, I knew you were after Brenner.
Brenner’s ten time worse than you Richard! You might be able to kill him, but he’ll take you with him! Or worse, you’ll kill him, but you won’t be you anymore. You’ll be that creature that had to survive in Slam City. A psychokiller. Either way, I knew I was going to lose you somehow. And I was not going to lose someone else I loved to Brenner!
But most importantly, I’m not worth you throwing away your only chance at a normal life. The chance at redemption that Fry died to give you. I’m not worth that, Richard. I’m not! Beth’s not! So I figured I could kill Brenner before you. Take him out the picture. I’d have the guilt for the rest of my life, but at least I’d have you. The real you. Not the Richard B. Riddick, Slam City murderer.”
Zar was sobbing by the time she was finished. Her body shaking against his, her eyes red with tears.
He watched her face as she sobbed. And realized the overwhelming love she had for him. To risk her own soul, her own piece of mind. She was willing to do that for HIM!
And he’d almost thrown it away in his desire to protect her. Not even contemplating that he would lose her even if he saved her life. Because she would never know, after Brenner’s murder, when or if he would turn back into Slam City Riddick. She never would be sure that he wouldn’t turn on her.
It was too much for him and his head started spinning. Laying his fore head against the back of her head he could hear her sobs growing louder.
“Shhh...shhh baby! It’s going to be O.K.! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I never even realized... I’ll let it go. He’s not worth destroying you over.”
Turning her around to face him he started to press small kisses all over her face. Absorbing her tears, and hopefully her pain, with his lips.
“Well ain’t that sweet! Two lovebirds cooing after a fight!”
Brenner!
Instantly he spun around, shiv in his hand, shielding Zar behind him.
He almost laughed at the irony of the situation. The old Riddick would have. But now he didn’t. Now he feared that he wouldn’t be able to keep Zar safe. He never felt less like laughing.
The only thing to do was play it off. Brenner hopefully didn’t know that either one of them had been tracking him.
“Fuck off! This is a private conversation!” He used his best Riddick voice and flashed the shiv once or twice. Hoping it would make Brenner think twice.
But Brenner, like Riddick, smelled the fear in that alley. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“Oh no, I don’t think so. You see, I’ve been told some big guy who always hides his eyes has been asking about me lately. Where I live, where I go to find my whores. You seem to fit his description just right. And this little lady has been following me ever since I left The Paradise. So you see, this is definitely not a private conversation.”
“You’ve got your head up your ass buddy. Me and the lady don’t know you from shit.”
As he bluffed Brenner, he felt Zar’s trembling hand press the gun she’d been hiding into his back. His first instinct was that she was threatening him, but common sense took over within five seconds. She was offering him the gun. And acknowledging the seriousness of the situation. She was letting him know that she understood that he had no choice about killing Brenner now. Their lives depended on it.
He felt more comfortable with a shiv. It was his forte and choice method of fighting and killing. But that wasn’t the problem.
The fact that Brenner had a pulse pistol aimed at him was.
He had no doubt that Brenner would blast him before he even touched Zar’s gun. Normally death held no fear to him. He had faced, sometimes even wished for it, too many times. But now his death meant leaving Zar at the mercy of the man she feared most. And with good reason.
“That so? Hmmm...well why don’t you let the bitch come out from behind you then? Maybe she’ll tell me what I need to know. I can be very persuasive when I need to be.” The evil laugh that followed his words sent warning alarms blaring in Riddick’s brain.
And they thought he was a psychopath?!
“NOW!!!”
Riddick put his free hand back on Zar’s hip, letting her know she was not to move an inch.
“Like I said...fuck off.”
Zar closed her eyes in fear. What the hell was Riddick up to! Was he deliberately trying to get them killed?!
She was torn between doing what Brenner wanted, and not knowing if in doing so if she was hurting Riddick’s chance at beating him.
Her decision was made moot by the quickly disappearing back of Riddick.
As if in a trance, she saw him slowly descend to the ground, first on his knees, then to his face. Blood started to blossom on his back, above his left shoulder.
Horror at the sight woke her from her stupor. Brenner was forgotten as she knelt next to Riddick.
“RICHARD!!!”
“Ah yes, quite a handy little gadget, a hair-trigger silencer. Made this one myself. No gun should be without it. Makes a shiv as worthless as a piece of pussy.”
As if from a place far away she heard his voice, but the words didn’t register.
Riddick wasn’t moving. His blood pouring out onto the street. Frantically she put a hand each over the entry and exit wounds. Trying to keep his precious life force with in his body.
Brenner stared with a smile down at the scene before him. If the piece of shit wasn’t dead yet, he would be within minutes. He gaze focused on the woman. Already he was contemplating the fun he could have with her.
No! It couldn’t be! She was dead!
But the horrified face bent close to the shit head erased his denial. The bitch from Jessup 3. The Arnett woman was alive!
Zar’s panic for Riddick was painfully interrupted by her whole body being dragged upright by her hair.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Mrs. ‘I don’t know when to stay dead’ Arnett? Looks like ‘ole Tom didn’t a very thorough job of fucking you to death a few years ago, did he?”
Zar stared into the face that had haunted her nightmares for the last four years. Images of Beth being bludgeoned, Lloyd set afire, Tollis being decapitated, Richard bleeding raced across her mind. All the rage and pain and fury obliterated the fear of being in the hands of the man who was intent in bringing her a long and painful death.
She knew Richard was as good as dead, as was she.
But she’d be damned if she went out begging for mercy from the likes of Brenner!
As covertly as possible, she gathered all the moisture she had in her mouth onto the tip of her tongue.
And spit it into the Brenner’s face. Smiling into his eyes. Daring him to kill her. Letting him know that she had no fear for him to feed on anymore. Death would be a welcome release for her now. She felt a brief twinge of regret of leaving Jack all alone, but it couldn’t be helped. She would die in a way that Richard would’ve been proud of. Defiant, not debasing.
“For Beth and Lloyd and Tollis and Richard. But most of all, for me!”
She saw her death approaching in the enraged eyes of Elson Brenner. The desire to toy with her burned away by the overwhelming need to wipe the smile and triumph from her face.
Like looking into the eyes of a rattle snake, she slowly became transfixed by the evil in his gaze. Even when she felt his hand slowly release her hair, she couldn’t break contact with the unholy light blazing from his blue eyes. The smile left her face, her brain replacing bitter triumph with numbness. Sensing the coming of unavoidable, great pain.
He backed away from her in jerky movements. Breathing heavy in his excitement.
Even knowing it was coming didn’t stop the shock from his attack. He pushed her against the wall with a bone bruising punch to her chest.
Stars and pain exploded behind her eyes as the back of her head made contact with the wall. Dimly she felt something wet trickle down her the back of her neck. Blood she dully realized.
Closing her eyes against the dizziness of a concussion, she snapped them open when his hands closed around her throat and started squeezing.
Too faint from the blow to her head, she could only weakly claw at his hands. Vainly trying to kick at him at the same time.
Already having trouble breathing from the hit to the chest, her air seem to evaporate within seconds as his hands closed tighter and tighter.
A great black void seemed to be opening up beneath her. And suddenly she knew this was death.
Images and sounds of her life flashed before her dying eyes. Giving birth to Beth. Her laughter and smiles as she awoke each morning. Her marriage to Lloyd, her friendship with Tollis and Jack. Making love to Richard. She hoped she would see Beth and Richard and Lloyd and Tollis soon. It would be some amends for the horrible death that was encompassing her.
Suddenly she couldn’t fight the pull of the darkness anymore, and let it take her will it would, leaving the pain behind.